The Tree in the Clearing
by bloodyredrubies
Summary: Where did Astoria Greengrass COME from? Read about the secret love-life behind the books and how she came to be. Oh, and see a different side the bullying Draco wouldn't want to show ANYONE!


_For Sidney...from Crystal_

Draco's parents were always pleased with his choice of girls. Their personal favorite amongst them had been Pansy Parkinson, a pug-faced Slytherin that hung in his gang of friends. So, as Draco usually did, he asked her to the Yule Ball. The desperate Pansy accepted, as he knew she would, and his parents, as he had expected, were happy.

Draco Malfoy was done with it.

**STARTING OF YEAR**

"I heard about that too. When in the blasted history of Hogwarts has a person _transferred_?" Crabbe questioned.

"When did _history_ come into the conversation?" Goyle retorted back at him, "And anyway, who cares? The girl's a Slytherin, and from what I've heard, she's a bit younger than us to be in our year. She's a year younger than those born after January."

Draco glared up at his two 'henchmen' with his gray eyes. "What could possibly be so important about this girl? So _what_ if she transferred from another witchcraft and wizardry school?"

"Draco, this girl is rather _important_. She grew up in the Muggle world because both her parents were of the Forgotten." Pansy told him.

Malfoy was taken aback for a moment, hearing a reference to the Forgotten. The Forgotten was five unlucky witches and wizards that had been, well, forgotten, and didn't attend Hogwarts. Now, about thirty years after those only Forgotten were adults, they were honored in society for learning their talent by themselves.

He couldn't care less.

Sitting in the sunlight around the Hogwarts grounds, Draco's gang would torment the others, do their work, and converse. Nothing appealed to him that they said; nothing in the slightest.

Malfoy didn't like his friends at all. He knew, though, that the others were petrified by him. Even his so-called friends were terrified by him. Draco was alone in this world, and he knew it.

That changed though.

"Come on, Draco, we're all leaving – it's getting rather cold out here." Pansy said to him. She held out her hand, as if he would ever take it.

Why would he? He didn't like her at all.

"You go on, Pansy."

Malfoy meditated in the life he was living now. His father was in Azkaban. Voldemort had a task for him. He was basically a loner.

Walking slowly into the clearing, he contemplated how bad his life actually was.

"Hello." A voice said.

Draco spun to his right. He had been in too deep of thought to have noticed where he had been walking.

He was just outside the courtyard, in a field with trees and other fantastic plants.

There, leaning against a tree, was a girl he had never seen before.

She wore the Slytherin uniform but didn't look much the part. No scowl was plastered on her face as her normal expression. Her eyes showed no hatred at all, no narrowness that expressed disgust. Perfectly normal, really.

"Hello...?" The girl repeated, only in question. Draco looked at her, trying to recognize her.

"I'm sorry, but have we..._met_ before?" He asked her.

The girl had green-gray eyes and dark brown hair. Her hair was cut with bangs and hit her shoulders.

"No." The girl said flatly. For a moment, her eyes examined his. Draco looked at her suspiciously, and they stood in silence for a minute.

"You look troubled, dear."

Malfoy recognized the accent. American Muggle, as Pansy once told him they sounded like.

"What makes you troubled?" She asked, gripping her knees with her slender fingers. Three rings were on each hand, silver and gold reflections playfully dancing around on his coat from them.

She wasn't afraid of him, he noticed. The girl looked at him calmly, waiting for his response.

In dismay, he slumped to the grass and proceeded to pull it out piece by piece. "Family." He responded after some hesitation.

"Ah. Family tends to do that, doesn't it? Some days it feels like that's just family's job, going around troubling other family."

Malfoy thought this over for a minute and found it slightly witty. Draco glanced up at her and felt heat come to his face. He turned his head down, feeling in his cheeks that he was blushing.

"By any chance, are you Draco Malfoy?" The girl asked, pulling in her knees further to her body.

"Y-yes."

"Hm."

"How did you...?"

"General intuition, hon'."

Draco definitely liked the way she talked, how she had an accent but threw in phrases that sounded so weird like "hon'" and "dear". It was, as he noticed, calming him that she was so easy to talk to.

"By the way, I'm...Astoria." The girl said. She hesitated on her name, as if she didn't like it much.

"Do you come here often?" She asked, changing the subject. "I decided I will, seeing as it's such a beautiful place."

Draco looked at Astoria, who was now examining the ending of one of the school's wings, which was just a little less than a hundred yards away.

"Yes. Every day, this same time." He finally said.

It was at this time that Draco Malfoy fell for Astoria.

The rumors kept flowing to Draco the rest of the day. He heard that Astoria was very close to the Greengrass family and was staying with them. This, I have to say, was true. Other rumors were outrageous: She was Belletrix' daughter (from her appearance and mannerisms, this probably blossomed), she wasn't even a witch (she rarely used magic in class, but her wits), and the final rumor, the most outrageous, that she was Luna's sister who had mindlessly wandered into Hogwarts in search of Harry Potter, in whom was her love interest. As you can tell, this had been quite outrageous. Let me tell you this, though: If all those rumors had been true, Draco wouldn't have anything of it. He was too blinded the rest of the day to care.

**THAT EVENING**

Malfoy sat at the dinner table with his parents. On the rare occasion, Draco was gifted, in his opinion, to leave the dining hall at Hogwarts and visit his mother, Narcissa. It had been quiet at the table since his father was arrested.

Rarely did Draco bring up a subject in a family conversation. Today, though, he had been squirming to tell someone about his latest friend.

"You'll never guess who I met today." He started, staring at his plate so as to avoid the glare he predicted his mother was giving him.

"Who, Draco?" Narcissa asked him hesitantly. She was surprised he spoke.

"The daughter of two Forgotten." He said. Draco looked up to meet his aunt's gaze, which wasn't what he predicted it to be.

"What is this girl's name?" Bellatrix asked him, her voice surprisingly steady as she levitated the food in front of her.

"Astoria." Malfoy said, again looking at his plate. "She didn't give a last name."

"What an honor to know the daughter of two Forgotten people."

Narcissa ignored her sister's comment. Her mind was turning now, but Draco had no idea of it. To him, it looked like she wasn't pleased with the news – that was what started the mayhem.

It was a month it took them. Daily Malfoy would escape his gang and sit against the tree, talking to Astoria about whatever was brought up to talk about. It took a month for them to notice they're feelings.

One day was particularly beautiful.

"Well if it isn't Draco Malfoy." Astoria greeted her friend. She looked up from a drawing pad on her lap to give him a bright smile that matched the scenery around them.

"Well if it isn't Astoria." He responded.

A light, feathery feeling overtook Draco this particular day.

This day, while Astoria was mid-sentence, Draco grabbed her by the back of her neck and kissed her. For a moment his heart dropped, noticing she wasn't returning the kiss. That, though, changed after a second, when she softly returned it.

But who, by incident only, watched this kiss unfold?

I can't tell you yet.

Now, I must retreat to the wing that was less than a hundred yards from this very spot. It was a beautiful ending to a wing, with windows circling the entire room.

In the room was a telescope.

I can tell how badly you want to know who was watching through that telescope. Even after this. You feel the room's description will soon come into play, but not yet.

Not yet.

**YEARS AGO**

"Come _on_ Severus, _say something_! Tell us off, Snape, Tell it to us!" Laughed Sirius coldly. "What's the _problem_, Severus?" James questioned.

The two friends were standing just feet from Severus Snape, staring at him and taunting him. In his usual position, leaning up against the tree outside in the clearing, Snape sat reading a book. He was used to this. Ever since first year, he'd come accustomed to the two tormenting him. Even after years of this torture of bullying, though, the normal feeling still was welled up inside him, the terrible violent rage inside his stomach of a monster ready to leap out and attack.

Severus glanced to his left and looked at Lilly Evans. In spite of his fury, the usual flutter came to him, only to change to a black heart when he came to reality. She never wanted to stand up for him, so she kept her distance in the bullying to wait and see if he finally blew.

"E-excuse me?" Came a soft voice from behind Sirius and James.

The two boys whirled around to see a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl behind them. She was sweet, innocent looking, but with a playful and devious look in her eye.

"Hello..." Sirius said, slowly coming onto the young lady.

James muttered something under his breath, staring at her.

Finding this the perfect time to get away, Severus stood up and gradually collected his things, not making a ruckus.

The stranger glared at them. "Not you." She scoffed.

At the sight of Snape trying to make off, the girl threw her arms open.

"Severus!" She exclaimed, running to and hugging him.

For a moment, Snape was surprised. Even so, he lightly put his hands on her back – he wasn't sure what was going on.

"Oh, dear, Severus! I missed you _so much_. The Muggle world is just so _boring_. I can't be long, love, the teachers will come catch me soon enough. Please, _please_ come visit me, Severus. I'll see you soon, dear."

He didn't have a moment to respond or question her actions. She threw her arms around his neck, and in the second they embraced, she murmured into his ear.

Before she ran off, she kissed him passionately.

Snape turned and stared at the boys, whose mouths hung slack.

"Do you _know_ that girl, Severus?" Sirius asked, watching her run off.

Snape hesitated.

"Yes. Her name is Victoria Lockheart."

And from then on out, Severus Snape longed to see her once again.

**MOMENTS AFTER THE KISS**

Snape pulled his eyes away from the gold telescope, almost awed at what he just witnessed.

He pictured Pansy Parkinson in his mind, but her face slowly wisped away like cigarette smoke. Wait until Narcissa hears about her son's feat.

"Ah. Professor Snape."

The professor whirled around with his wand pointed at the intruder.

There stood the new student, Astoria.

"I didn't know who it was watching us in the telescope." She said, flashing him a smile. "Frankly, I didn't care, but my curiosity got the best of me."

Astoria began to casually pace, in contrast to Severus, who circled around with his wand still pointed at her. She ran her finger up the telescope and peered into it.

"I know your task, having to watch and protect Draco." She glanced at him. "Unbreakable Bond, am I right?"

Pacing again, Astoria hopped over the back of the chair sat in the end of the room, landing sideways with her legs hanging over the armrests.

"Get this straight, Professor, I know what you saw. And I'm being nice today, so I decided to bargain with you. Now, if you tell Draco's parents about what you witnessed, I have some dirt on you, too, that I can spread."

Severus lowered his wand.

Astoria picked at her nails and looked up at him. "About you and Lilly Evans. Easy rumor to pass around, love is. An easy rumor to _stretch_, no doubt about that."

She smiled an evil grin at him.

"You wouldn't." Snape spat.

"Oh, Professor, I would." Astoria flashed a grin again, "Just don't say anything about me and Draco, or the whole of Hogwarts will be swarming with scandalous rumors of you and _Harry Potter's_ _mother_."

She hoisted herself out of the chair and leaped from it gracefully. Snape stood in his place silently, just staring at her with a blank expression.

"Good man, Professor, good man."

"Wait a minute." Snape grabbed Astoria's shoulder as she passed him. "How did you know about Lilly Evans?"

Astoria spun to face her teacher with a devious smirk on her countenance. "Remember that blond, Victoria Lockheart?"

For a minute or so, Severus stared at her. Gradually, his eyes widened in recognition.

"Vic—"

"—toria. Yes. Victoria, Astoria. Rhymes, doesn't it? See, Severus, I was just being kind. I had a hunch you had some anger towards Potter and Black, so I did a little research. Interesting what I found..." Astoria paused, thinking. "All I did was dye my hair blond and put blue contacts in..."

This enlightenment remotely frightened Astoria. After all, if you just altered your hair colour and proceeded to hug and kiss your teacher for the sake of the (possible) future, wouldn't you be frightened?

Snape stood and stared at his student.

Astoria turned on her heel from him and waved her hand dismissively. "I think it worked. After all, Bellatrix still taunts Sirius about it – that's the one thing that torments him, from what I've heard."

"Oh." She said, halfway out the door. Astoria stuck her head in the room again. "By the way, the kiss before I left was a nice touch, no?"

Again, she flashed a grin to him.

Astoria was gone before Snape could respond.

There Severus Snape stood, pondering the disturbing fact that he, for many years, longed to see Victoria Lockheart again, which, in truth, was now his student.

**AN HOUR LATER**

Rarely Draco was surprised enough to have his jaw hang slack.

If he could have, his mouth would've hit the ground when he saw Astoria the first time.

This, though, was one of few times he was awestruck.

"You're not serious."

"Actually, Draco, I _am_, for once."

"No, no, no. See, if my girlfriend were to do that, I'd have fainted already."

"Wow, you're out of character right now."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Malfoy and Astoria were sitting in a booth together at the Three Broomsticks.

This conversation is occurring moments after she broke the news she locked lips with a teenage Snape.

Draco leaned against the booth back, contemplating. "I snogged a girl that snogged my teacher—"

"When he was younger." She protested.

"—That is old enough to be our fathers."

Astoria, in spite of the discussions atmosphere, laughed.

Draco looked down at the short girl next to him.

"What?"

"Oh, you're just quite funny."

"I'm funny?"

"Yes. Funny. You know, humorous. I have an odd sense of humor."

Malfoy paused. "Actually, you do. Have to agree to that."

At this time in the conversation, Astoria heard Professor Slughorn talking. "All hands on deck, Miss Granger!"

Draco glanced down at the girl next to him again. "I have to go deliver that package now. Be back in a few minutes."

Malfoy grabbed the thin, rectangular box off the booth table. Hesitantly, he gave Astoria a peck on the cheek before sliding out of the seat and into a room across the bar.

**LATER...**

"So Astoria is a Death Eater?" Malfoy asked in shock. "I know she acts a bit like my aunt Bellatrix, but _really_. An assumption is—"

"It isn't an assumption, Draco." Narcissa exclaimed.

"I know it's surprising to you, but she has been ever since her fight with Dumbledore."

Malfoy couldn't believe it, even after Snape explained everything.

The story he told Draco seemed to fit Astoria's interests and persona. Dumbledore, many years ago, ordered Hagred to keep his pets on leashes, and if they 'needed' be, an executor could be sent without reason to dispose of said pets. Time traveling, Astoria fought with Dumbledore to keep the animals free and away from pointless killings. She said it was abuse, inhumane. In Malfoy's opinion, the matter _was_ truly inhumane. Even a Mudblood could understand _that_. For many weeks, Dumbledore sent professors and guards to find her and execute her as an outlaw; she was convicted of supporting the Dark People's views. The Dark People, Snape told him, were what they called the evil witches and wizards before Tom Riddle came along. Accepting Astoria, unaware that she was that outlaw, Dumbledore allowed her access to Hogwarts by transferring.

"She wants to dispose of Dumbledore as much as the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord do. Only for different reasons, we made an alliance with her so you can stay with your precious girlfriend." Snape gave Draco a sarcastic smile.

"Go." Narcissa ordered her son.

Obediently, he left, meditating once again.

His meditation went much like this:

_Now that Astoria's around, I've avoided Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy. I think Pansy's catching on to us, though... that won't be pleasant. Bloody Pansy, can't she just stop clinging to me and figure out that I hate her? How is Astoria a Death Eater? I'll have to talk to her. She couldn't possibly be just because she hates Dumbledore and Hagred for screwing up Hogwarts. I'll talk to her. She'll understand – hopefully. And not take her wand out and challenge me to a duel to the death. But—_

His thoughts were interrupted by a slender hand grabbing onto his arm.

Whirling around, he met the currently emotionless face of Astoria.

"So they told you."

Malfoy stood for a moment, staring into her stoic face that he'd never witnessed before. Her eyes were mournful.

Astoria's grasp on his arm loosened.

"I love animals. I couldn't bear see the leader of a school order such terrible fates to perfectly healthy creatures. It just wasn't right."

Draco put his arm on her shoulder. "It isn't right. My family has always hated Hogwarts for its terrible views on life. That's why there's Death Eaters."

It was then that Draco gave her a smile.

Astoria's eyes widened, and before he could know what was going on, she had flung her arms around his neck and hugged him.

"What's this for?" He asked, bending down quite a lot for her.

"You have the cutest smile!" She exclaimed, laughing a sincere giggle.

Astoria let go of him.

"I'm headed to the dining hall. Would you like to come with me?" Draco asked.

"Publicly? Wouldn't Pansy be angry?"

Malfoy smiled again. "I'm not worrying about that anymore."

Astoria departed from him in the dining hall, deciding on taking a walk around the grounds instead.

Draco warned her not to get caught, and she scoffed and said she would just be invisible.

He laughed, making her flutter and hug him again, this time with a kiss too.

"So every time I laugh or smile I'm going to get this from you?" He asked.

"Probably. You're too irresistible not to."

"Then I'll have a smile plastered on my face all day, like those Gryffindors."

Astoria laughed as she walked away. "Even being sincere you still pick on everyone but Slytherin. Way to go, Draco, you've stooped to a lower level than before!"

He looked over to stare at Harry, talking to... Katie Bell. "That Bell girl," Goyle was telling Crabbe, "That was cursed by a necklace, being sent to Dumbledore!"

Guilt flooded Draco. He was overwhelmed with a terrible feeling – he felt hot and cold at the same time, his pulse was racing, and he felt tears coming.

Harry turned from Katie and looked directly into his eyes.

Malfoy staggered back and quickly exited the dining hall.

Draco didn't stop.

He ran to the bathroom and took off his vest. He ran the water and splashed it on his face. Draco began to cry.

The battle between him and Harry you are probably quite familiar with. This writing by J.K. Rowling I cannot reproduce, due to of course plagiarism and also due to her marvelous talent to paint the perfect picture. All I do is sketch it.

Snape ran in and began to heal Draco. Almost immediately after, he heard a _fwish_ and what sounded like footsteps in the water.

"Draco!"

It was Astoria.

"Why are you in here?" Snape demanded. She was in the boy's restroom, after all.

"I was taking a walk on the grounds – well, actually I was taking a ghost form and going invisible through the rooms, when I got lost. I got in here before the fight, and when I heard Harry, I wanted to stay in case someone got hurt. Whether it have been Malfoy or Potter."

"Ah. Caring." Snape said flatly, in spite of the compliment.

Draco came to.

"What – what in the bloody hell are you _doing _here, Astoria?" He asked in a tired voice.

"I was lost and floated in here... before Harry came in, dear."

"I feel awful guilty."

"I would too, Draco, she wasn't supposed to touch it."

"I meant in general, Astoria. If it had been Katie or Dumbledore, I'd be guilty either way."

Astoria sighed and looked thoughtfully at Draco. "True. But, dear, it's for the best."

Severus sensed he should leave them be. He stood up and exited the bathroom, its pipes bursting with water around them.

She laughed softly, helping him up. "I like your hair like this." Astoria gestured to his messy hair.

"_Really_?" Malfoy asked, laughing. He put a hand to his stomach, which still had the wound.

"Yes. I think the screwed up hair style was Cedric's thing, though."

"How do you know about Cedric?" Draco asked, looking at her in wonder.

Astoria grinned at him. "Greengrass family made me acquainted with him. They're all so kind."

They were walking down the hall now, drenched from head to toe in water with Draco limping.

"Of all things I don't know about you, Astoria, it's your last name."

There was silence, and the two of them stopped.

"I haven't come up with a last name yet."

Malfoy grabbed her arm, halting her from walking down the vacant passage to the hospital.

"_I want an explanation_."

Draco stared at her fixedly.

Astoria sighed. "I gave Dumbledore my original name when we had that... _dispute_... over the animals. Big mistake, I know, but I only have my first name so far."

Malfoy groaned, now exasperated at her for not planning this out beforehand.

"You had to have given Hogwarts _some_ last name."

"I did. With agreement from the family."

"Then what family did you take the name from?"

"I took the last name Greengrass."

_End of Chapter 1_


End file.
